Bradley out to break the cycle

Celtic Cup: Connacht, for a number of reasons, will want to depart Stradey Park tomorrow night with the right result against Llanelli.

Not only is there a consultative meeting with stakeholders of the game and the general rugby public on Wednesday in the Radisson Hotel in Galway city to discuss the recent document released by the IRFU and how it might affect rugby in the province, but the side are seeking their first win in five quarter-finals.

Connacht have twice been in the European Shield quarter-final and twice they've played in the Celtic League quarter-final. Coach Michael Bradley will be hoping to make the breakthrough and move on to the next level.

Eric Elwood is still doubtful and his position has been left open. In the absence of the former Irish international David Hewitt will start with Shane Moore coming on to the bench.

Matt Mostyn, who replaced the injured Wayne Munn last week and went on to score one of Connacht's best tries, holds his place on the wing, while in the back row Paul Neville moves from the open side to the blind side flank.

That gives Bradley the chance to field former UCD flanker Tom Carter, who missed all of last season with a back injury. It will be Carter's first start of the season for Connacht.

There is also change afoot in Munster where Alan Gaffney has decided to undertake some squad rotation and he fields a much changed team to face Glasgow to the one that faced Neath-Swansea Ospreys last week.

Jeremy Staunton, who moved into the outhalf position against the Ospreys, holds on to the number 10 shirt for the Hughenden game in the absence of Conrad O'Sullivan, who picked up an injury during the match.

"Look to be honest I just want to play in the side wherever I'm picked, " said Staunton.

"However, I'm delighted to be playing at 10. It's unfortunate it came about as a result of an in jury to Conrad but I suppose it is my preferred position. But as I said, I'll play anywhere.

"Against Swansea, we started off well and then went into a sort of decline. We didn't defend properly, gave them the ball an awful lot and then found we were tired from defending when we had the ball.

"But the second half was much better once we kept the ball in hand. I made a few mistakes myself but overall I would look to the positives from the game."

Otherwise Gaffney begins the quarter-final game with the same back line that finished last week's match, Staunton partnering Eoin Reddan and Dominic Crotty starting at fullback.

The pack has been changed considerably. In the front row Jody Danaher props in place of Martin Cahill, still out with a broken finger. Cahill, however, is named on the bench.

It will be Danaher's first competitive start for Munster alongside Jerry Flannery and Simon Kerr. In the second row Trevor Hogan takes the place of Eddie Halvey, who reverts to the bench while Stephen Keogh comes in as blindside flanker. Last season's Irish under-21 captain Keogh slots in for Denis Leamy, who hurt a shoulder last time out.

Leinster will not know the make up of their team to face Ulster at Ravenhill Road tomorrow night until today.

Coach Gary Ella still hopes to be able to select from the same 22 as last week but as the disciplinary meeting involving centre David Quinlan went on late last night, Leinster were unable to make a statement about the outcome.

The team will know today what sanctions, if any, Quinlan faces for receiving a red card for verbal abuse of the referee in Leinster's Celtic League match against Edinburgh last Friday night at Donnybrook.

With or without Quinlan, Ella is likely to become increasingly frustrated if his young team continues to squander healthy leads. They twice dropped a 14 point advantage against the Scottish side, finally losing in the last kick of the match.

"We keep getting ourselves in good positions but we can't finish them off," said the Australian coach.

"Friday night was a particularly hard loss because we were in a position where we should have won. They played some good football to come back but we couldn't understand some of the refereeing decisions, to be fair."

Ella went on to observe that while getting bonus points for losses did seem a bit odd, "they could be handy at the end of the season."

Ulster are currently standing fourth in the league table with two wins from three matches, while Leinster occupy 12th place with no wins from three games and just one bonus point.

MUNSTER (v Glasgow): D Crotty; Lawlor, M Mullins, J Jones Hughes, S Payne; J Staunton, E Reddan; S Kerr, J Flannery, J Danaher, T Hogan, D Pusey, S Keogh, D Wallace, J Williams. Replacements: M McPhail, K Keane, M Prendergast, C McMahon, E Halvey, F Roche, M Cahill.

CONNACHT (v Llanelli): M McHugh; M Mostyn, D Yapp, T Allnutt, C McPhilips, A N Other, M Walls; R Hogan, B Jackman, B Boiroux, D Browne, A Farley, P Neville, T Carter, J O'Sullivan. Replacements: J Fogarty, A Clarke, M McCarthy, M Lacey, C Keane, A N Other, T Robinson.